Why the Church?
I’m sure you’ve heard the statement: “I’m all about Jesus, but I’m not interested in church.” I’ve heard this many times and have even found myself saying it during certain periods of my life.
“Why do others love Jesus differently than we do?”
As strange as this question may seem, it is also difficult and has consequences that are not at all negligible. Even if it is not always phrased like this, or perhaps not even spoken out loud, this question arises in every home.
Conspiracy: from Lord of the Rings to the era of fake news
Towards the end of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, there is a final showdown between Frodo and Smeagol. Smeagol tries to regain possession of "My Precious", and when Frodo resists, Smeagol tries to strangle him. One scene in this part shows Frodo shocked that Smeagol has broken his promise and, though on the brink of death, sees fit to plead for honour:...
COVID-19 and the dilemma of evil
It is right for you to look for what you are looking for, but it is not where you are looking for. In the land of death, you seek a happy life: it is not there. How can life be happy somewhere where there is no life? (St. Augustine, Confessions)
Understanding suffering better
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him" (Romans 8:28).
The meaning of life: between the sandbox and the constellations
Life is a stage that we enter without a script, although we are constantly influenced by forces of varying visibility: social, educational, religious, economic, and political.
COVID-19: Could giving up ever be the key to success?
Pray! If not to God, then to a god. Admit that we are defeated, because this is the first step towards victory.
How to grow together with God
We’d been married only a few weeks when we discovered that growing our spirituality as a couple was going to be much more complicated than the instructions on the packet suggested.
Lou, the woman with no regrets left
Any sacrifice is hard to understand from the outside. But it's even harder to understand how sacrifice can be a choice that brings joy to the person making it. The easiest people to include in this category are, of course, mothers. For them, the sacrifices never seem too many or too hard. Even more amazing are those mothers who raise other people's unwanted...
The God of love, the God of justice
Centuries ago, the German theologian and philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz used the term “theodicy”1 for the first time—“God’s justification”. By theodicy, Leibniz meant the ultimate reality of justification, once and for all, of God and all of His ways before the whole universe.
Freed from the prison of a troubled mind
Behind a successful career, John Baxter's life was falling apart.
“I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
I was born into an Adventist family. This meant feeling that pretty much everything I knew, including my religious tradition, was the sole truth.
The tree that overshadowed the earth
"[Jesus] told them another parable: 'The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.' He told them still another parable: 'The...
Does God listen to my prayers?
If there is a crossroads where both the path of faith and the path of doubt or unbelief begin, it is prayer.